Astronauts Dan
Barry and Pat Forrester completed the first of two planned space walks
during Discovery’s voyage to the International Space Station. The excursion
lasted 6 hours, 16 minutes and involved installing the Early Ammonia
Servicer and the first external experiment on the station’s hull. The
servicer contains spare ammonia that can be used in the space station's
cooling systems if needed. The Materials ISS Experiment (pronounced
‘missy’ by its acronym) will expose 750 material samples to the space
environment for about 18 months before being returned home late next
year. During the space walk, Discovery’s Commander Scott Horowitz operated
the shuttle robot arm, and Pilot Rick Sturckow choreographed the space
walk from the orbiter’s flight deck. This was the 25th space walk devoted
to the construction of the space station and the 12th this year. Barry
and Forrester will perform the mission’s second space walk on Saturday
to hook up heater cables for another truss structure to be delivered
to the station next year. Mission managers Friday will evaluate the
consumables onboard Discovery and assess the progress made by the crews
in transferring items into the Leonardo logistics module from the station
before making a determination as to whether the docked phase of the
flight should be extended by one day.

Earlier today,
the computers inside the Zvezda module once again assumed control of
the station’s attitude – or position in space -- after Russian flight
controllers completed the loading of upgraded software commands to those
computers. In the meantime, Discovery maintained control of the complex
until the computer upgrades were completed with no impact to station
operations.

The Expedition
Three crew --Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and
Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin -- earlier today offered commemorative
remarks on the occasion of the 1000th day in space for the International
Space Station since the Zarya module was launched on Nov. 20, 1998 from
the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Discovery and
the station are orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an average altitude
of 244 statute miles with all systems functioning normally. The next
status report will be issued about 6 a.m. Friday, or earlier, if events
warrant.

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